Media release – Bob Brown Foundation, 3 November 2023
Forest protest reclaims Swift Parrot habitat from loggers
A protest is underway in Tasmania’s southern forests where contentious logging has been destroying swift parrot habitat.
One forest defender has attached themselves to the logging gate with the aim to rescue the precious native forests from further destruction. Ten people are occupying the access road into the logging area.
“The logging of our native forests has to stop. I hold both state and federal governments responsible for this environmental damage. We need to end this senseless destruction to our natural world now! The swift parrot was named the bird of the year. They are critically endangered due to habitat loss but still, the trees they need for breeding are being torn down. Right here right now behind this gate. We say no more!” Sandra Van Den Berg said, who is taking courageous action today in the southern forests.
“This forest, identified as KD022C by Forestry Tasmania, is part of the Kermandie Divide. The Kermandie Divide is known by swift parrot experts as a key and recurrent nesting area for the critically endangered swift parrot. This forest contains old senescent trees, offering ideal conditions for swift parrots to lay eggs. Forestry Tasmania is pushing their machines through this forest while the swift parrots are currently occupying these hollow bearing trees,” Jenny Weber said, Bob Brown Foundation’s Campaign Manager.
“Trees that are being logged and are imminently threatened in this forest are old enough to form hollows and cavities that are used for swift parrot and other wildlife as refuge or nest. In an extinction crisis, this habitat must be preserved,” Jenny Weber said.
“Our Foundation has appealed to Premier Rockliff to evict the logging machines and protect all swift parrot habitat in Tasmania. Instead, we have government sanction logging of habitat of a critically endangered species,” Jenny Weber said.
In recent days Forestry Tasmania has released swift parrot records from inside the logging area. Listing on the Natural Values Atlas, they have admitted that “swift parrots were heard near habitat trees and warbling from habitat tree.”
